Lucky Birds

Belle arrives for the rehearsal.

Wow! says Belle when she sees the blue basket, the blue painted mountains, the blue rope and pulley and the brown sky.

She puts the red double headed sheep box on the floor, next to the basket. 

Another job for you, Belle, says Vello. Two cloaks, made of hummingbird feathers.

Crikey! says Belle. You don't ask much, do you?

 I'm sure he doesn't mean real hummingbird feathers, says David.

Don't I? says Vello. Is there a problem?

They would be hard to come by, says Gaius. There are no hummingbirds in Australia. The closest we have is the eastern spinebill.

Does it have blue feathers? asks Vello.

No, says Gaius. Brown, grey, buff, white and russet.

Useless! says Vello.

Lucky eastern spinebill, says Belle. What colour should these cloaks be? Blue, I'm guessing.

Hummingbird feathers come in many colours, says Gaius. Copper, rose, emerald, purple, white, grey and bright blue.

So what, if we can't get them? snaps Vello.

I'm just pointing out that they need not be blue, says Gaius.

They must be blue, says Vello. So Candide and Cacambo can get up the ladder without being spotted.

There's the splendid fairy wren, says Gaius. With its splendid blue feathers.

I'm not tracking down splendid fairy wrens, says Belle. I can buy packets of feathers in Spotlight, and also blue sequins, if we want to suggest iridescence.

I suppose iridescence is what I would have been getting at, says Vello.

But at the time you didn't imagine the need for invisibility, says David.

Explain to me again this need for invisibility, says Vello.

Because we can't all fit in the basket, says David.

And if the basket were bigger? asks Vello. 

Then we'd have no painted backdrop of mountains and sky, says David. There are only five panels.

Who designed this? asks Vello.

Lu Ban, says Gaius. But he only sent Chinese instructions.

Yeah, we already had to add hinges, says Sweezus.

Incomplete instructions! scoffs Vello.

Guess so, says Sweezus. Or the guy from Bunnings didn't know what he was doing.

Give me those instructions! says Vello. Is Bunnings still open? I'll sort this.

I'll go with you, says Belle. I need to get to a Spotlight.

They go.

Right, says David. It's not worth rehearsing until this is resolved. Shall we break for coffee and donuts?

David makes the coffee, Sweezus breaks open a packet of donuts, while Terence looks out of the window for Hedley. Where is he?

So far we've got nowhere, says Sweezus, chewing his donut.

Not at all, says Gaius. Think of the splendid fairy wrens we have saved. And the eastern spinebills.

They were your suggestion, thinks Arthur. 

But he decides not to say it.